A circuit arrangement of the generic type is known from DE 29 25 692 A1. In that case, it is known to feed cascades of LEDs, each including a multiplicity of LEDs, from an AC voltage power supply system via a rectifier. However, this leads to a high degree of light modulation, so-called “flicker”, and energy-inefficient utilization of the LEDs. For higher power classes, this approach furthermore leads to problems with normative stipulations with regard to power factor and harmonics.